Wanganui City Bridge’s lighting retrofit is saving the Wanganui District Council up to NZ$9000 in reduced power and maintenance costs over the life of the new fittings.

The Wanganui District Council has refitted the lights on the Wanganui City Bridge in New Zealand using 14 GE LED fittings, saving the council up to NZ$9000 in reduced power and maintenance costs over the life of the fittings. This translates into a payback period of 6.2 years.

As a facility manager or property owner, you may be feeling pressure to improve your site’s energy efficiency or to help tenants reduce their energy bills. And, unfortunately, the expectation can sometimes be that you do this with no additional resources and little budget, which can ultimately leave one in the position of having to rely on vendors. However, this doesn’t mean you have to be at their mercy.

Lighting is a major consumer of electricity in the United States. According to data from the United States Department of Energy, lighting is responsible for 24% of the primary electricity demand in the building sector, a total of 6.86 quadrillion Btu. And 65% of the lighting energy consumed in the United States is devoted to commercial buildings (D&R International, 2009). According to a nationwide building survey, lighting makes up 38% of all electricity used in commercial buildings, more than any other system (CBECS, 2003).

This report has just been released by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. The Energy Efficient Lighting Technology Report is specifically produced for facilities managers, plant operators, site engineers, procurement managers and operations and financial management.